Sabres vs. Senators: Cozens and Norris, 20 months after the trade

On a Friday in March 2025, the Buffalo Sabres were last in the Eastern Conference. Dylan Cozens, a 24-year-old center Buffalo had taken seventh overall in 2019, was told he was going to Ottawa.

"I dreamt every day about being a part of a good team in Buffalo, playing in the playoffs in Buffalo," Cozens said after the trade.

Fourteen months later, Buffalo won a playoff series without him. The forward the Sabres got for him, Josh Norris, scored the empty-net goal that sealed Buffalo's first playoff series win since 2007.

Tonight at KeyBank Center, the two of them meet again.

The trade

The deal was built around two young forwards on big, long contracts. Buffalo sent Cozens, defenseman Dennis Gilbert and a 2026 second-round pick to Ottawa. Ottawa sent back Norris and defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker.

On paper it was a swap of similar bets. Cozens was in year two of a seven-year, $49.7 million deal ($7.1 million a year) and had 31 points in 61 games that season. Norris, 25, was in year three of an eight-year, $63.6 million deal ($7.95 million a year) and had 20 goals and 33 points in 53 games. Both teams were paying for upside.

The standings told you who was buying and who was resetting. Ottawa held the East's second wild card. Buffalo was 24-31-6, 13 points behind the Senators for that spot. Norris called Buffalo "a fresh start for me" the day after the deal. Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk made it clear that losing him stung.

What happened next

The 2025-26 season is where this rivalry got interesting.

Buffalo opened the season series with an 8-4 home win over Ottawa in October, then its season fell apart. By early December the Sabres were last in the East again. On Dec. 15 the club promoted Jarmo Kekalainen to general manager, replacing Kevyn Adams, and the team caught fire. The Associated Press credited part of the turnaround to getting healthier, including the return of Norris and Jason Zucker to the top two lines.

The streak ran straight through Ottawa. In December, Bowen Byram scored 31 seconds into overtime at Canadian Tire Centre for a 3-2 win, Buffalo's seventh straight. The run reached 10 games.

The Sabres clinched a playoff spot on April 4, 2026, ending an NHL-record drought of 14 seasons. They finished 50-23-9 and won the Atlantic Division. Norris played 44 games and put up 34 points.

Cozens got his own moment against his old team. Two days before Buffalo clinched, he tipped in the tying goal at 15:18 of the second period in Ottawa, his 26th of the season, and the Senators won 4-1 behind 21 saves from Linus Ullmark. He finished the year with 28 goals and 59 points in all 82 games, and Ottawa made the playoffs in back-to-back years for the first time since 2012-13.

Two different springs

Buffalo's spring had the bigger highs. The Sabres beat Boston in six games, closing it out 4-1 at TD Garden. Norris scored the empty-netter at 16:40 of Game 6. Then they pushed Montreal to Game 7 in the second round and lost 3-2 in overtime at home.

Ottawa's spring was short. Carolina swept the Senators in the first round, and Ottawa went 1-for-21 on the power play. All five Senators goals in the series came from two players: Drake Batherson with three and Cozens with two.

So who won the trade? Twenty months in, the honest answer is both teams got what they asked for. Ottawa got a durable center who scores in big spots. Buffalo got a forward who was part of the healthier lineup that turned its season around.

This season, and what to watch tonight

Ottawa comes in 9-6-1 and Buffalo 7-4-3. It is the first of four meetings this season, with puck drop at 7:30 p.m. ET.

Cozens has 10 points (four goals, six assists) in 16 games, and he is heating up. Last week in Los Angeles the Senators trailed the Kings 5-1 after two periods, then scored four times in the third to tie it. Cozens had two goals and an assist in that rally before the Kings won it in overtime.

Norris has three points in 14 games, playing about 14 and a half minutes a night in a middle-six role, per Last Word On Sports.

The player Ottawa has to solve is Tage Thompson. He has 10 goals and 17 points in 14 games, and five goals on 12 shots in his last two: a hat trick at Anaheim that included two goals 15 seconds apart, then two more in a 3-2 win at Los Angeles. He scored 40 last season.

The two offenses are close. Buffalo averages 3.07 goals per game and Ottawa 3.13.

What it means on the board

• Thompson's shot volume is the clearest number in this game. Shots-on-goal props for Buffalo's shooters, Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin among them, are the kind of market tonight's board is built around.
• Points props for Batherson and Buffalo's Zach Benson are on the board too. Batherson scored three of Ottawa's five goals in the Carolina series, and Benson scored in the Game 6 clincher in Boston.
• Cozens is the swing piece. When he drives a line, as he did in Los Angeles, Ottawa's whole top six gets more looks, which matters for team totals and points markets.
• Both teams sit right around three goals a game, so the total comes down to goaltending and power plays, not a big gap in talent. That is research and context, not a promise about tonight.

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